The waiting room at a doctor’s or dentist’s surgery places you into a kind of standby mode.

This is called the ‘space between’, or the ‘waiting room syndrome’.

It can be the most stressful part. You are fixed on what is about to happen – not the present.

The Future Dominates

This can also happen spiritually.

We have a promise from God, but while we wait for Him to act, we are focused on what was, or on what is coming. We fail to inhabit the present moment – the now.

This can feel overwhelming and we become impatient.

However, God often uses this in between space to prepare us for what is coming. The place He builds character.

The Three-Day Wait

Here are a few biblical examples of the ‘waiting room’ – a three-day space between.

The old situation is at a point of apparent finality, but the new has not yet been revealed.

Those three days may be a threshold between the old and the new.

This does not mean that every three-day period in Scripture has the same meaning.

Abraham’s Three-Day Journey

Abraham also had a significant three days fiery trial.

God commanded him to take his son Isaac, the son of promise, to Mount Mariah and offer him up as a sacrifice to God.

The journey took three days, Genesis 22:4.

God had promised Abram’s descendants would be too numerous to count, Genesis 22. But the son was about to be sacrificed.

Three days filled with:

• Profound grief
• Questioning
• Silent reflection
• Praying for the strength to do God’s will.

The only thing left was to have faith in God who could raise Isaac from the dead, Hebrews 11:17-19.

What would have been a soul-destroying disaster, became the place of profound faith and divine intervention.

God provided a substitute ram for Isaac. This was prophetic of what God would do centuries later at Calvary.

Abram trusted God before he saw the answer. A solution that was far greater than anything he could imagine.

The waiting room was not empty – God was already there with the answer.

Abram became Abraham. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, Romans 4:3.

Israel’s Three Days

Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, following their dramatic deliverance from Egypt and the Red Sea crossing.

God instructed the people to consecrate themselves and prepare for His appearance among them, Exodus 19:10–11.

They were given three days to prepare.

The people had gone from slavery, to now facing the intense presence of the great I Am Who I Am, Exodus 3:14.

They stood in the threshold between deliverance and revelation. Elation and or fear?

God was not just bringing them out of something.

He was preparing them to become something.

God declared that if they obeyed His voice and kept His covenant, they would be His treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, Exodus 19:5, 6. God’s witness to the world, Isaiah 43:10,12.

Their ‘waiting room’ was preparation for a new identity.

A New Generation

Because of Israel’s unbelief concerning God’s covenant and the Promised Land, that generation wandered in the wilderness for 40 years – and died.

A new generation now stood at the threshold of the Promised Land.

Once again they were given a three-day period of preparation.

Joshua instructed the people, Within three days you are to cross over this Jordan, Joshua 1:11

Days that marked the space between the wilderness and their inheritance.

They had been tested and were now to step into what God had for them.

The ‘waiting room’ was about to become a doorway.

Jonah’s Three Days

The prophet Jonah resisted what God was asking of him.

His journey of rebellion ended with being thrown overboard.

Surely this was the end?

Then, God intervened by appointing a great fish to swallow him, Jonah 1:17.

The prophet, Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

What were those long hours filled with?

• Disbelief
• Terror
• Panic
•  Anger
• Despair

Yet, in that terrible darkness, something began to change.

Jonah reached the end of Himself – God was his only hope of salvation.

Jonah Prayed

He went from:

• Distress to
• Recognition
• Repentance to
• Renewed commitment to God.

His prayer ended in thanksgiving, even though he was still in an impossible situation.

Again God intervened.

Jonah was vomited up onto dry land. He had another opportunity to fulfil his calling.

Warning

But Jonah’s story has an important warning.

The circumstances had changed but Jonah’s heart had not been truly transformed.

After God showed mercy to Nineveh, Jonah sat burning with resentment and anger as he looked across the city.

Our circumstances can change, but we must let God also change us on the inside.

Esther and Deliverance

Esther shows us another powerful example involving three days.

God’s people were facing a death sentence brought about through evil deception – which the king could not withdraw.

Esther called the Jewish people to fast for three days and nights, Esther 4:16.

Then she went before the king, knowing it could cost her, her life.

Things changed dramatically.

The king allowed the Jews to arm themselves so they could put up a defence.

Those three days were the space between a death sentence and the possibility of God’s deliverance.

Lazarus

Another deeply painful example of the waiting room surrounds Lazarus, the friend of Jesus.

When news of the death of Lazarus reached Jesus, He remained where He was for two more days, John 11:5,6.

The family had seen Jesus raise others from the dead, Luke 7:11-17; 8:40-46, but He hadn’t come when they needed Him the most.

When Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb three days and three nights.

 The body was in decay. The situation had moved from the possible to the impossible.

However, Jesus was about to do something more spectacular than raising a just-dead lad and 12-year-old girl.

He declared: I am the resurrection and the life, John 11:25

He called Lazarus out of the tomb with a loud voice.

Jesus was revealing something that was far beyond Lazarus’s immediate circumstances.

He was demonstrating that when human hope reaches its limit, God’s power has no boundary.

Often God lets us reach the end of what we believe is possible so that we can discover the impossible in Him.

The Ultimate Wait

All these examples point us toward the greatest miracle of the ultimate ‘waiting room’.

His disciples saw Jesus crucified.

They were devastated – their hopes destroyed.

The body of the One they believed was the Messiah was lying in a sealed tomb.

Everything was ended.

The Space Between

However, the grave did not have the final say.

It was merely a space between.

For three shock-filled days, the disciples lived with the finality of death.

Then came the unbelievable reality of resurrection.

An event that transformed everything.

• The silence of the grave was replaced with the greatest revelation yet
• Defeat had became victory
• It was a new beginning not an ending

What Satan designed for the ultimate evil, God turned to resounding good, Exodus 3:14.

Lessons From the Waiting Room

There are seasons when we find ourselves in a waiting room.

We may face circumstances that appear impossible and God seems silent.

Yet, waiting does not mean inactivity.

• God may be preparing us
• Testing our faith
• Building our character
• Changing our perspective
• Dealing with something within us
• Preparing circumstances that we cannot yet see.

The danger is that while waiting for tomorrow, we can miss what God is doing now.

Part of the Journey

The waiting room is part of the journey for those who believe. An opportunity to be an overcomer.

In Part 2, we will explore why waiting is sometimes necessary in God’s economy  – and how we can learn to live faithfully, peacefully and purposefully in the ‘space between’.

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Dr. Wendy is a servant of the Lord. Her desire is to help believers grow in their understanding of Scripture and walk confidently with Christ in these end-time days.

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